Page 54 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

“A few Apprentices here and there over the years. I want to find them. I want to bring them back. Have any of you heard anyone talking about them? Do you know anything that might help me find them?”

I hadn’t given them a truth potion, but I would be stupid not to seek answers while they were being honest.

“No,” Ansel said. The others all had the same answer.

“There are a lot of people I miss,” Nevada said quietly.

Silence descended on our table. No one looked the least bit hungry anymore.

“Well, keep your ears open, if you would. I have to go.”

I’d spotted Kato bringing away his lunch tray. I caught up with him as he was leaving the dining hall.

“We need to talk,” I whispered to him.

“All right.” He waited for me to say more.

I shook my head. “Not here. In private.”

“Follow me.” He led me up the tower to his room.

As soon as he’d shut the door behind us, I turned around. “We need to speak to Conner.”

I was about to summon him myself, but Kato was faster. He reached under his shirt and pulled out a coin attached to a gold chain. The craftsmanship didn’t look all that different from that of the necklace Conner had given me to contact him.

“I’m glad you two are friends again,” I told him. “Maybe you’ll be a good influence on Conner.”

Laughter poured out of the open balcony door, followed by Conner. “Kato a good influence on me?” He laughed again. “Small chance of that, Red. I’m incorrigible.”

I planted my hands on my hips. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”

His shrug was as unapologetic as his smile.

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked him.

“I’ve been keeping close to the Castle.”

“So you could sneak a truth potion into my friends’ drinks? I told you not to do that!”

“Actually, you told me not to give them a truth potion. I used a truth serum , which is way more potent than a truth potion. All it takes is a single drop of truth serum for them to spill all of their secrets.”

I glowered at him. “You’re not going to get off on a technicality, Conner.”

His expression went from playful to serious in an instant. “I did what had to be done, Red. There are lives at stake. I’m not going to apologize for giving your friends a potion that makes them tell the truth.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” My voice cracked.

“Yes, I’ve saved you from the guilt of giving them the truth serum yourself.”

I leaned against the wall for support.

Conner looked at me in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“Because you gave Dante that truth serum, he thinks our mom loves me more!”

“The truth serum only makes you tell the truth,” Kato pointed out. “It doesn’t change the way you think. Your brother already thought that way.”

“Well, he thought wrong!” Tears welled in my eyes. “Mom loves him just as much as she loves me.”

“I think your brother needs to hear that from her,” Conner said gently.

I sniffled. He was right. I couldn’t fix this. Only Mom could. Once she was back from her work project, we had to talk to her.

Conner approached me cautiously. “Red, are you all right? Are we all right?”

I wiped my wet eyes with the back of my hand. “Only if you promise you won’t do anything like this ever again.”

He winced. “Does it count if we already did something?”

“We?” I looked from Conner to Kato.

“Actually, it was Kato’s idea.” Conner nudged Kato forward. “Tell her.”

Kato suddenly looked very human—and very much like a teenage boy who’d been caught in the act. “Well…” He cleared his throat. “Before the truth serum, Conner and I tried something else on your friends.”

“Actually, that one was all Kato,” Conner said. “No one can manipulate people like Kato.”

I cringed at the word manipulate .

“I charmed them using Elf magic,” Kato said. “And then I asked them questions about the kidnapped children.”

I felt my eyes go wide.

“Don’t worry. He erased their memories afterwards, so they don’t remember anything,” Conner told me.

I sighed and rubbed my head. “What did you learn?”

“Nothing relevant,” Kato said. “In fact, even less than you found out.”

“So this was all for nothing?”

I realized now that I’d been wrong before. Very wrong. The problem wasn’t that Conner was a bad influence on Kato. The two of them were a bad influence on each other.

“We’re not sure why neither the truth serum nor the charm spell worked,” Kato said.

“Might it be because none of my friends are involved in anything shady?” I suggested.

“It has to be one of them. The things the General knows could only have come from someone close to you. A friend. How else could he know all those things he knows?”

“I don’t know, Conner. Maybe you guys are the General’s informants.”

Conner snorted. “Because Kato and I are the General’s biggest fans.”

“Yeah, I know.” I heaved a sigh.

“The General sees me as ‘the Tool’, a label I wholeheartedly resent,” Kato said.

“And as for me…well, let me put it this way: if the General were to write an encyclopedia, my picture would be in the section entitled ‘Humanity’s Greatest Threat’.” Conner smirked at me, like he appreciated his nickname as much as Kato resented his.

“So, what now, boss?” Conner asked me with an enigmatic arch of his brows.

“Why does she get to be the boss?” Kato complained.

Conner shrugged. “She’s smarter than you.”

Kato frowned at him. “I think I liked things better when we weren’t talking.”

“Well, I sure didn’t. Life was dull without you, Kato.”

Kato blinked. “Yeah.”

“Whoa, are you crying?”

“No.” Kato blinked again. “I’ve got something in my eye.”

“It must be something big to make all those tears.” Conner’s eyes lit up with mischief.

Kato turned to me. “Permission to set Conner on fire, boss.”

I laughed. “Denied. You two will just have to work out your problems like civilized people.”

“That doesn’t sound like very much fun,” Conner commented with a frown.

“Knights are supposed to be civilized.”

Conner’s smile was back and brighter than ever before. “Well, I guess that’s why I’m not a Knight anymore. Being civilized is boring.”

Kato rolled his eyes. “You might as well say ‘behaving myself is boring’.”

“Exactly! I’ll make a Rebel of you yet!”

“I’d rather eat rocks.”

Chuckling, Conner patted him hard on the back.

Kato looked at me. “So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan?”

“You are the boss. And the boss gets to come up with the plan,” Kato said.

Conner gave me a big thumbs up.

“If you want to be the boss of the anti-kidnapping task force, you need to have a plan.”

“I never said I wanted to be the boss, Kato. Conner volunteered me for the job.”

“In that case, I volunteer to take the job of boss off your hands.”

“Sure you do.” Conner snorted. “But if Red doesn’t want to be the boss, then I’ll do the job.”

“I don’t think either of you should be in charge,” I decided. “Your methods are morally questionable.”

“Then take charge. Tell us what the plan is,” Conner said.

“Only if you both first agree to do things my way from now on,” I said. “No sneaking people truth serum.” I looked at Kato. “Or charming them with magic in order to drag confessions out of them before you wipe their memories clean.”

“We promise to do things your way from now on,” Conner said solemnly. “Right, Kato?”

“Agreed.”

“Ok. In that case, I do have an idea that might help us figure out which of my friends betrayed me,” I said.

“Do tell,” Conner urged me. “What kind of magic does your plan require?”

“That’s the thing,” I replied. “My idea doesn’t require any magic at all.”